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Sopranos' Hits Sour Note At Italian-American Forum
By Herbert Lowe & Curtis L. Taylor, Staff Writers, Newsday

May 16, 2001 - - Even after Mayor Rudolph Giuliani-Gotham's mob-movie fan No. 1- suggested they lighten up, an Italian-American activist group yesterday took aim at "The Sopranos," saying the cable-TV hit unfairly stereotypes their culture.

Most of the speakers at a National Italian-American Foundation (NIAF) panel blasted the show during a discussion on the harm done by  Hollywood's mob depictions.

"I find that the violence really became gratuitous," said Vanity Fair columnist James Wolcott, a former fan of the show. "I virtually cannot watch the show now."

The mayor, however, said the issue isn't worth going to the mattresses.  "I'd get a little looser," Giuliani, offering his best "Godfather" imitation, told reporters when asked about the panel's agenda. "The fact is, it's a reality of our history," Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, said of the show. " ... Some of it is enormously realistic to me, having listened to cases in which men would talk about buying clothes for their children and then in the next breath they  would discuss how they could do the next murder."

Told of the mayor's comments toward the end of the panel discussion, the foundation's president, Joseph Cerrell of Los Angeles, shrugged. "Everyone's entitled to his opinion," he said.

Bill Tonelli, an assistant managing editor at Rolling Stone, was seemingly alone among the 200 people on hand when he said only "crybabies" bemoan the show.

But Joseph Scelsa, a Queens College vice president, said "The Sopranos" helps keep Italian-Americans out of the best colleges and jobs. "There are people who sit around tables and judge you by the vowel at the end of your name," said Scelsa. "And you can believe they are thinking about Tony Soprano."

Camille Paglia, the scholar and culture critic, said the show is among many in Hollywood in which Italian-Americans are inaccurately portrayed. "I still can't watch 'Prizzi's Honor,'" Paglia said, adding that Jack Nicholson's accent could not have been more off.

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